"
objectification may involve verbalising constraints on parenthood in a sexual relationship, where the only integrated answer to the question of children is provided in the details of the sexual act itself
"

- philosophy of the body

Subjectify

Representing Humanity

Subjectify - leading the abolition of physical and psychological abuse

Philosophy

Please visit the Philosophy of the Body home page for an extensive publically monitored detailing of our analysis based upon our philosophy.[1]

The Philosophy of the body is classified as philosophical speculation, and is used in hypothesis generation for empirical studies of objectification theory. The Philosophy of the Body comprises a series of social and psychological relationships regarding the objectification of human beings, and may be viewed in a number of layouts - each focusing on a particular kind of relation. These include the following;

Part A - Subject Affected (objectified, witness, etc - the subject affected based on the rationale provided)

Part B - Argument Type (social, psychological, etc)

Part C - Argument Side (the immediate effect for the subject affected based on the rationale provided; positive or negative)

Part D - Relevant Topic (in contemporary culture)

Part E - Subject/Object Subjected (whether one or more persons are subjected to something or someone based on the rationale provided)

The Objectification Wiki

The Objectification Wiki is a forum devoted to the open discussion of the issue of Objectification in society. Note it contains the contents of the Philosophy of the Body (as published during its development) and may be used for the public review of this manuscript.

Note the Objectification Wiki is registered under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License, so it may be both edited by anyone and used by anyone, so long as the derivative work attributes all Objectification Wiki content to the author of the relevant Objectification Wiki contribution(s) in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse them or their use of the work). For citation purposes, all Objectification Wiki contributions up to and included at least version 23 October 2012c were made by RBB, and we request that the source of these contributions be referenced (Philosophy of the Body).

Philosophical Connections

The Philosophy of the Body can (in retrospect) be summarised by taking Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (~325 B.C.), and integrating his concept of true friendship (appreciation of virtue) with his concept of rational sexual relations (self-controlled and non-subjugated).

This is not to say that this idea was not expressed by Aristotle himself, but it appears to have been done so in a somewhat limited fashion, probably subject to social constraints at the time (including conditions for the growth and experience of another's capacity for virtue);

"And for these reasons this Friendship is thought to combine the profitable and the pleasurable: it will be also based upon virtue if they are good people; because each has goodness and they may take delight in this quality in each other"

Secondarily, the Philosophy of the Body argues that the natural bodily pleasures (eg food) cannot be equated because some involve other people.

The logic above is either rejected or unconsidered by Aristotle, where he further uses their presumed equality as a basis for arguing their necessity. It is clear Aristotle himself struggles to argue this point, using phrases (translated) such as "Homer says...", "(which answer to this description)", "Granting...", "Perhaps it even follows... (let us assume)... per se", "May we not say...".

Thirdly, the disintegration of true friendship and sexual relationship also encourages objectification (although Aristotle's work does not of itself imply this, certainly not in the context of his other arguments - ie, rationality, self-control, and self-mastery).

It is therefore recommended to read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, as it may form well as an introduction to both the Philosophy of the Body and the tolerance of objectification.

For those concerned with some of Arisotle's philosophical assumptions, it is best to become equated with various models of free will (and determinism). It is also necessary to accept our inherited belief in the significance of our own awareness - our ego being based upon belief in our own unique existence (ie, see Non-reductive Physicalism). It should also be noted as a given, that the authority of human reason must also be accepted as a premise (as no argument can can be made, scientific or otherwise, without this). Furthermore, it should also be noted that his work has unintended implications for civil rights such as slavery, having limited knowledge of the influence of society (versus nature) on the development of a civilised being. The Philosophy of the Body by contrast uses less assumptions than Arisotle with respect to philosophy of mind, and accepts biological evolution as a physical model for the development of the human body.

Some quotes.

"obscenity is empowerment - freedom is the absence of objectification"

Subjectify, 2012.

"there is only one thing more powerful than a lie"

Subjectify, 2012.

"we are either part of the machine, or are fighting against it"

Subjectify, 2012.

"What do you say to women who say you objectify the female form?"

"The notion that [censored corporation title] turns women into sex objects is ridiculous. Women are sex objects. If women weren't sex objects, there wouldn't be another generation. It's the attraction between the sexes that makes the world go 'round. That's why women wear lipstick and short skirts."

Hugh Hefner, New York Daily News, 1 August 2010

"We understand that some people will find some of these images offensive and the Government is particularly concerned that children should not be exposed to unsuitable material. However, it is necessary to find the appropriate balance between protecting the public and legitimate freedom of expression."

UK Government's response to petition concerning the display of magazines portraying women as objects in public places - 6 April 2010

Cuddy: "You don't have any evidence. And nobody knows anything huh? Then how is it that you always assume you're right?"
House: "I don't, I just find it hard to operate on the opposite assumption."

House M.D. Season 1 - Episode 1, 2004/5

House: "Well, like the philosopher Jagger once said, 'You can't always get what you want'."
...
Cuddy: "Oh, I looked into that philosopher you quoted, Jagger, and you're right, 'you can't always get what you want', but as it turns out 'if you try sometimes you get what you need'."

House MD Season 1 - Episode 1, 2004/5

Wilson: "As Dr. House likes to say, 'Everybody lies'."
Rebecca: "It's not what people say, it's what they do. "

House MD Season 1 - Episode 1, 2004/5

Wilson: "You know, it wouldn't hurt you to be wrong now and then"
House: "What, you don't care about these people?"

House MD Season 1 - Episode 3, 2004/5

House: "We all make mistakes, and we all pay a price"

House MD Season 1 - Episode 7, 2004/5

House: "Thank you. And humility is an important quality. Especially if you're wrong a lot."
Foreman: "You've been wrong every step of the way."
House: "Of course, when you're right, self-doubt doesn't help anybody, does it?"

House MD Season 1 - Episode 9, 2004/5

Carly: "Why did you fight for me? You risked so much, and you hardly know me."
House: "You're my patient. Don't screw it up."

House MD Season 1 - Episode 14, 2004/5

House: "I'm sure this goes against everything you've been taught, but right and wrong do exist. Just because you don't know what the right answer is - maybe there's even no way you could know what the right answer is - doesn't make your answer right or even okay. It's much simpler than that. It's just plain wrong."

House MD Season 1 - Episode 21, 2004/5

Stacy: "I had to do what I thought was right."
House: "It's the only reason anyone does anything."

Jack: "You pretend to buck the system, pretend to be a rebel, claim to hate rules. But all you do is substitute your own rules for society's. That's a nice, simple rule - tell the blunt, honest truth in the starkest, darkest way. And what will be, will be. What will be, should be. And everyone else is a coward. But you're wrong..."

House MD Season 2 - Episode 24, 2005/6

Wilson: "If you've got a good life, you're healthy, you've got no reason to [censored metaphor], no reason to hate life... They get depressed, not because they wanted to die, but because they've defined themselves by their disease. Suddenly, what made them 'them' isn't real... The only way you could come to terms with your disability was to some way make it mean nothing. So you had to redefine everything. You have dismissed anything physical, anything not coldly, calculatingly intellectual."

House MD Season 2 - Episode 24, 2005/6

House: "This is not real, therefore it's meaningless. I want meaning"

House MD Season 2 - Episode 24, 2005/6

House: "My patient's still fighting in the feminist trenches, but the war is over. Yesterday's [censored metaphor] are today's empowered women, today's [censored metaphor] are celebrities -- if that isn't progress"

House M.D. Season 5 - Episode 1, 2008/9

House: "Good point. You know what they say. Information is not power. Wait.."

House M.D. Season 6 - Episode 20, 2009/10 (after having her leg amputated)

"Wu-u-wees hases our preciouseses!"

Butters, from South Park - Season 6 - Episode 13, 2002

Empress: "He doesn't realise he's already part of the Neverending Story."
Atreyu: "The Neverending Story, what's that?"
Empress: "Just as he is sharing all your adventures, others are sharing his."

The Neverending Story, 1984

"Motivating people, forcing them to your will, gives you a cynical attitude toward humanity. It degrades everything it touches. If I made him do... this, then it would not be his doing."

The Lady Jessica, from Frank Herbert's Dune, 1965

"There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles."

from 'Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib' by the Princess Irulan, from Frank Herbert's Dune, 1965

"My father once told me that respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all mortality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing, ' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be."

from 'Conversations with Muad'Dib' by the Princess Irulan, from Frank Herbert's Dune, 1965

"What do you despise? By this are you truly known"

from 'Manual of Muad'Dib' by the Princess Irulan, from Frank Herbert's Dune, 1965

"Prophecy and prescience - How can they be put to the test in the face of the unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction of the 'wave form' (as Muad'Dib referred to his vision-image) and how much is the prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What of the harmonics inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he way shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of a knife?"

'Private Reflections on Muad'Dib' by the Princess Irulan, from Frank Herbert's Dune, 1965

"The meeting between ignorance and knowledge, between brutality and culture - it begins in the dignity with which we treat our dead."

Jessica's thoughts, from Frank Herbert's Dune, 1965

"The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future."

from 'Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib' by the Princess Irulan, from Frank Herbert's Dune, 1965

"Have you noticed, Stil, how beautiful the young women are this year?"

Leto II, to Stilgar (x3), from Frank Herbert's Dune, 1965

"She noted that town Fremen were watching the pilgrim dancers below her, their eyes intense and unwavering. A basic sexual equality had come out of the desert to persist in Fremen town and city, but social differences between male and female already were making themselves felt. That, too, went according to plan. Divide and weaken. Alia could sense the subtle change in the way the two Freman watched those off-planet women and their exotic dance. Let them watch. Let them fill their minds with ghafla."

Alia, from Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, 1976

"All proofs inevitably lead to propositions which have no proof! All things are known because we want to believe in them... "

The Lady Jessica to Bene Gesserit delegation (in accordance with their manuals), from Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, 1976

"If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true or false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced."

The Open-Ended Proof (by the Panoplia Prophetica), from Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, 1976

[censored corporation title] : In Atlas Shrugged, one of your leading characters is asked, "What's the most depraved type of human being?" His reply is surprising: He doesn't say a sadist or a murderer or a sex maniac or a dictator; he says, "The man without a purpose." Yet most people seem to go through their lives without a clearly defined purpose. Do you regard them as depraved?

Ayn Rand: Yes, to a certain extent.

[censored corporation title] : Why?

Ayn Rand: Because that aspect of their character lies at the root of and causes all the evils which you mentioned in your question. Sadism, dictatorship, any form of evil, is the consequence of a man's evasion of reality. A consequence of his failure to think. The man without a purpose is a man who drifts at the mercy of random feelings or unidentified urges and is capable of any evil, because he is totally out of control of his own life. In order to be in control of your life, you have to have a purpose -- a productive purpose.

...

[censored corporation title] : If a person organizes his life around a single, neatly defined purpose, isn't he in danger of becoming extremely narrow in his horizons?

Ayn Rand: Quite the contrary. A central purpose serves to integrate all the other concerns of a man's life. It establishes the hierarchy, the relative importance, of his values, it saves him from pointless inner conflicts, it permits him to enjoy life on a wide scale and to carry that enjoyment into any area open to his mind; whereas a man without a purpose is lost in chaos. He does not know what his values are. He does not know how to judge. He cannot tell what is or is not important to him, and, therefore, he drifts helplessly at the mercy of any chance stimulus or any whim of the moment. He can enjoy nothing. He spends his life searching for some value which he will never find.

[censored corporation title] : Couldn't the attempt to rule whim out of life, to act in a totally rational fashion, be viewed as conducive to a juiceless, joyless kind of existence?

Ayn Rand: I truly must say that I don't know what you are talking about. Let's define our terms. Reason is man's tool of knowledge, the faculty that enables him to perceive the facts of reality. To act rationally means to act in accordance with the facts of reality. Emotions are not tools of cognition. What you feel tells you nothing about the facts; it merely tells you something about your estimate of the facts. Emotions are the result of your value judgments; they are caused by your basic premises, which you may hold consciously or subconsciously, which may be right or wrong. A whim is an emotion whose cause you neither know nor care to discover. Now what does it mean, to act on whim? It means that a man acts like a zombi, without any knowledge of what he deals with, what he wants to accomplish, or what motivates him. It means that a man acts in a state of temporary insanity. Is this what you call juicy or colorful? I think the only juice that can come out of such a situation is blood. To act against the facts of reality can result only in destruction.

[censored corporation title] : Should one ignore emotions altogether, rule them out of one's life entirely?

Ayn Rand: Of course not. One should merely keep them in their place. An emotion is an automatic response, an automatic effect of man's value premises. An effect, not a cause. There is no necessary clash, no dichotomy between man's reason and his emotions -- provided he observes their proper relationship. A rational man knows -- or makes it a point to discover -- the source of his emotions, the basic premises from which they come; if his premises are wrong, he corrects them. He never acts on emotions for which he cannot account, the meaning of which he does not understand. In appraising a situation, he knows why he reacts as he does and whether he is right. He has no inner conflicts, his mind and his emotions are integrated, his consciousness is in perfect harmony. His emotions are not his enemies, they are his means of enjoying life. But they are not his guide; the guide is his mind. This relationship cannot be reversed, however. If a man takes his emotions as the cause and his mind as their passive effect, if he is guided by his emotions and uses his mind only to rationalize or justify them somehow -- then he is acting immorally, he is condemning himself to misery, failure, defeat, and he will achieve nothing but destruction -- his own and that of others.

...

[censored corporation title] : Where, would you say, should romantic love fit into the life of a rational person whose single driving passion is work?

Ayn Rand: It is his greatest reward. The only man capable of experiencing a profound romantic love is the man driven by passion for his work -- because love is an expression of self-esteem, of the deepest values in a man's or a woman's character. One falls in love with the person who shares these values. If a man has no clearly defined values, and no moral character, he is not able to appreciate another person. In this respect, I would like to quote from The Fountainhead, in which the hero utters a line that has often been quoted by readers: "To say 'I love you' one must know first how to say the 'I.'"

[censored corporation title] : You hold that one's own happiness is the highest end, and that self-sacrifice is immoral. Does this apply to love as well as work?

Ayn Rand: To love more than to anything else. When you are in love, it means that the person you love is of great personal, selfish importance to you and to your life. If you were selfless, it would have to mean that you derive no personal pleasure or happiness from the company and the existence of the person you love, and that you are motivated only by self-sacrificial pity for that person's need of you. I don't have to point out to you that no one would be flattered by, nor would accept, a concept of that kind. Love is not self-sacrifice, but the most profound assertion of your own needs and values. It is for your own happiness that you need the person you love, and that is the greatest compliment, the greatest tribute you can pay to that person.

[censored corporation title] : You have denounced the puritan notion that physical love is ugly or evil; yet you have written that "Indiscriminate desire and unselective indulgence are possible only to those who regard sex and themselves as evil." Would you say that discriminate and selective indulgence in sex is moral?

Ayn Rand: I would say that a selective and discriminate sex life is not an indulgence. The term indulgence implies that it is an action taken lightly and casually. I say that sex is one of the most important aspects of man's life and, therefore, must never be approached lightly or casually. A sexual relationship is proper only on the ground of the highest values one can find in a human being. Sex must not be anything other than a response to values. And that is why I consider promiscuity immoral. Not because sex is evil, but because sex is too good and too important.

[censored corporation title] : As one who champions the cause of enlightened self-interest, how do you feel about dedicating one's life to hedonistic self-gratification?

Ayn Rand: I am profoundly opposed to the philosophy of hedonism. Hedonism is the doctrine which holds that the good is whatever gives you pleasure and, therefore, pleasure is the standard of morality. Objectivism holds that the good must be defined by a rational standard of value, that pleasure is not a first cause, but only a consequence, that only the pleasure which proceeds from a rational value judgment can be regarded as moral, that pleasure, as such, is not a guide to action nor a standard of morality. To say that pleasure should be the standard of morality simply means that whichever values you happen to have chosen, consciously or subconsciously, rationally or irrationally, are right and moral. This means that you are to be guided by chance feelings, emotions and whims, not by your mind. My philosophy is the opposite of hedonism. I hold that one cannot achieve happiness by random, arbitrary or subjective means. One can achieve happiness only on the basis of rational values. By rational values, I do not mean anything that a man may arbitrarily or blindly declare to be rational. It is the province of morality, of the science of ethics, to define for men what is a rational standard and what are the rational values to pursue.

[censored corporation title] : You have said that the kind of man who spends his time running after women is a man who "despises himself." Would you elaborate?

Ayn Rand: This type of man is reversing cause and effect in regard to sex. Sex is an expression of a man's self-esteem, of his own self-value. But the man who does not value himself tries to reverse this process. He tries to derive his self-esteem from his sexual conquests, which cannot be done. He cannot acquire his own value from the number of women who regard him as valuable. Yet that is the hopeless thing which he attempts.

[censored corporation title] : You attack the idea that sex is "impervious to reason." But isn't sex a nonrational biological instinct?

Ayn Rand: No. To begin with, man does not possess any instincts. Physically, sex is merely a capacity. But how a man will exercise this capacity and whom he will find attractive depends on his standard of value. It depends on his premises, which he may hold consciously or subconsciously, and which determine his choices. It is in this manner that his philosophy directs his sex life.

Ayn Rand: He is not. A man is equipped with a certain kind of physical mechanism and certain needs, but without any knowledge of how to fulfill them. For instance, man needs food. He experiences hunger. But, unless he learns first to identify this hunger, then to know that he needs food and how to obtain it, he will starve. The need, the hunger, will not tell him how to satisfy it. Man is born with certain physical and psychological needs, but he can neither discover them nor satisfy them without the use of his mind. Man has to discover what is right or wrong for him as a rational being. His so-called urges will not tell him what to do.

[censored corporation title] : In Atlas Shrugged you wrote, "There are two sides to every issue. One side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil." Isn't this a rather black-and-white set of values?

Ayn Rand: It most certainly is. I most emphatically advocate a black-and-white view of the world. Let us define this. What is meant by the expression "black and white"? It means good and evil. Before you can identify anything as gray, as middle of the road, you have to know what is black and what is white, because gray is merely a mixture of the two. And when you have established that one alternative is good and the other is evil, there is no justification for the choice of a mixture. There is no justification ever for choosing any part of what you know to be evil.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us..."

Gandalf, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."

Gandalf, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill."

Elrond, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"For nothing is evil in the beginning."

Elrond, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing... such a little thing."

Boromir, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"Why do you speak ever of hiding and destroying? Why should we not think that the Great Ring has come into our hands to serve us in the very hour of need? Wielding it the Free Lords of the Free may surely defeat the Enemy. That is what he most fears, I deem. The Men of Gondor are valiant, and they will never submit; but they may be beaten down. Valour needs first strength, and then a weapon. Let the Ring be your weapon, if it has such power as you say. Take it and go forth to victory!"

Boromir, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"Indeed in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him."

Haldir, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."

Haldir, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"'And what do you wish?' he said at last.'That what should be shall be', she answered."

Frodo and Galadriel, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - The fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"Indeed, man is so constituted that he then only excels other things when he knows himself; but he is brought lower than the beasts if he lose this self-knowledge. For that other creatures should be ignorant of themselves is natural; in man it shows as a defect."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book II, Section V, by Boethius, 524

"All mortal creatures in those anxious aims which find employment in so many varied pursuits, though they take many paths, yet strive to reach one goal - the goal of happiness."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book III, Section II, by Boethius, 524

"Now, the good is that which, when a man hath got, he can lack nothing further. This it is which is the supreme good of all, containing within itself all particular good;"

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book III, Section II, by Boethius, 524

"Tis clear, then, that happiness is a state perfected by the assembling together of all good things. To this state, as we have said, all men try to attain, but by different paths"

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book III, Section II, by Boethius, 524

"For the desire of the true good is naturally implanted in the minds of men; only error leads them aside out of the way in pursuit of the false."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book III, Section II, by Boethius, 524

"The lust thereof is full of uneasiness; the sating, of repentance. What sicknesses, what intolerable pains, are they wont to bring on the bodies of those who enjoy them - the fruits of iniquity, as it were!"

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book III, Section VII, by Boethius, 524

"Nay, if these can make happiness, there is no reason why the beasts also should not be happy, since all their efforts are eagerly set upon satisfying the bodily wants."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book III, Section VII, by Boethius, 524

"Art fain to lead a life of pleasure? Yet who does not scorn and contemn one who is the slave of the weakest and vilest of things - the body?"

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book III, Section VIII, by Boethius, 524

"Yet prize as unduly as ye will that body's excellences; so long as ye know that this that ye admire, whatever its worth, can be dissolved away by the feeble flame of a three days' fever."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book III, Section VIII, by Boethius, 524

"For they go on in their wilfulness fancying they will attain what they wish for in the paths of delight; but they are very far from its attainment, since shameful deeds lead not to happiness."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section II, by Boethius, 524

"Lastly, since every prize is desired because it is believed to be good, who can account him who possesses good to be without reward? ... Since absolute good is happiness, 'tis clear that all the good must be happy for the very reason that they are good. But it was agreed that those who are happy are gods. So, then, the prize of the good is one which no time may impair, no man's power lessen, no man's unrighteousness tarnish; 'tis very Godship."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section III, by Boethius, 524

"As, then, righteousness itself is the reward of the righteous, so wickedness itself is the punishment of the unrighteous."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section III, by Boethius, 524

"Accordingly, by this way of reckoning, whatever falls away from goodness ceases to be; whence it comes to pass that the bad cease to be what they were, while only the outward aspect is still left to show they have been men. Wherefore, by their perversion to badness, they have lost their true human nature."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section III, by Boethius, 524

"Further, since righteousness alone can raise men above the level of humanity, it must needs be that unrighteousness degrades below man's level those whom it has cast out of man's estate... So it comes to pass that he who by forsaking righteousness ceases to be a man cannot pass into a Godlike condition, but actually turns into a brute beast."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section III, by Boethius, 524

"For verily, incredible as it may seem to some, it needs must be that the bad are more unfortunate when they have accomplished their desires than if they are unable to get them fulfilled. If it is wretched to will evil, to have been able to accomplish evil is more wretched"

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section IV, by Boethius, 524

"For if wickedness makes men wretched, he is necessarily more wretched who is wicked for a longer time; and were it not that death, at all events, puts an end to the evil doings of the wicked, I should account them wretched to the last degree."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section IV, by Boethius, 524

"Then said she: 'Have we not agreed that the good are happy, and the evil wretched?'"

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section IV, by Boethius, 524

"Hast thou fashioned thy soul to the likeness of the better, thou hast no need of a judge to award the prize - by thine own act hast thou raised thyself in the scale of excellence; hast thou perverted thy affections to baser things, look not for punishment from one without thee - thine own act hath degraded thee, and thrust thee down."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section IV, by Boethius, 524

"And so for this and other reasons resting on the same ground, inasmuch as baseness of its own nature makes men wretched, it is plain that a wrong involves the misery of the doer, not of the sufferer."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section IV, by Boethius, 524

"whereas pity is rather due to the criminal, who ought to be brought to the judgment-seat by his accusers in a spirit not of anger, but of compassion and kindness, as a sick man to the physician..."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section IV, by Boethius, 524

"Whence it comes to pass that for the wise no place is left for hatred; only the most foolish would hate the good, and to hate the bad is unreasonable."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section IV, by Boethius, 524

"... and much more, should they be pitied whose minds are assailed by wickedness, which is more frightful than any sickness."

from The Consolation of Philosophy - Book IV, Section IV, by Boethius, 524

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."

from an account of the life and teachings of a western religious figure[2]

"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"

from an account of the life and teachings of a western religious figure

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more than clothing? ...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these... Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink' or 'What will we wear?'... So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today."

from an account of the life and teachings of a western religious figure

"...Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for your to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire."

from an account of the life and teachings of a western religious figure

"What then is the Chief Good in each? Is it not 'that for the sake of which the other things are done?'"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book I, Section VII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"And of this nature Happiness is mostly thought to be, for this we choose always for its own sake, and never with a view to anything further: whereas honour, pleasure, intellect, in fact every excellence we choose for their own sakes, it is true (because we would choose each of these even if no result were to follow), but we choose them also with a view to happiness, conceiving that through their instrumentality we shall be happy: "

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book I, Section VII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"so too the whole Man, as distinct from all these, has some work of his own? ... What then can this be? not mere life, because that plainly is shared with him even by vegetables, and we want what is peculiar to him. We must separate off then the life of mere nourishment and growth, and next will come the life of sensation: but this again manifestly is common to horses, oxen, and every animal. ... If then the work of Man is a working of the soul in accordance with reason, or at least not independently of reason, and we say that the work of any given subject, and of that subject good of its kind... if all this is so, then the Good of Man comes to be 'a working of the Soul in the way of Excellence'

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book I, Section VII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"But of Reason this too does evidently partake, as we have said: for instance, in the man of self-control it obeys Reason: and perhaps in the man of perfected self-mastery, or the brave man, it is yet more obedient; in them it agrees entirely with the Reason. So then the Irrational is plainly twofold: the one part, the merely vegetative, has no share of Reason, but that of desire, or appetition generally, does partake of it in a sense, in so far as it is obedient to it and capable of submitting to its rule."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book I, Section XIII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"From this fact it is plain that not one of the Moral Virtues comes to be in us merely by nature: because of such things as exist by nature, none can be changed by custom: a stone, for instance, by nature gravitating downwards, could never by custom be brought to ascend, not even if one were to try and accustom it by throwing it up ten thousand times; nor could file again be brought to descend, nor in fact could anything whose nature is in one way be brought by custom to be in another. The Virtues then come to be in us neither by nature, nor in despite of nature, but we are furnished by nature with a capacity for receiving them and are perfected in them through custom."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section I, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Thus it is therefore with the habits of perfected Self-Mastery and Courage and the rest of the Virtues: for the man who flies from and fears all things, and never stands up against anything, comes to be a coward; and he who fears nothing, but goes at everything, comes to be rash. In like manner too, he that tastes of every pleasure and abstains from none comes to lose all self-control; while he who avoids all, as do the dull and clownish, comes as it were to lose his faculties of perception:"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section II, by Aristotle, 325BC

"And for a test of the formation of the habits we must take the pleasure or pain which succeeds the acts; for he is perfected in Self-Mastery who not only abstains from the bodily pleasures but is glad to do so; whereas he who abstains but is sorry to do it has not Self-Mastery: he again is brave who stands up against danger, either with positive pleasure or at least without any pain; whereas he who does it with pain is not brave. For Moral Virtue has for its object-matter pleasures and pains, because by reason of pleasure we do what is bad, and by reason of pain decline doing what is right"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section II, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Once more; it is harder, as Heraclitus says, to fight against pleasure than against anger"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section II, by Aristotle, 325BC

"We are right then in saying, that these virtues are formed in a man by his doing the actions; but no one, if he should leave them undone, would be even in the way to become a good man."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section II, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Now Feelings neither the virtues nor vices are, because in right of the Feelings we are not denominated either good or bad, but in right of the virtues and vices we are."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section II, by Aristotle, 325BC

"'Men may be bad in many ways, But good in one alone.'"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section II, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Let Pleasures then be understood to be divided into mental and bodily: instances of the former being love of honour or of learning: it being plain that each man takes pleasure in that of these two objects which he has a tendency to like, his body being no way affected but rather his intellect. Now men are not called perfectly self-mastering or wholly destitute of self-control in respect of pleasures of this class: nor in fact in respect of any which are not bodily; those for example who love to tell long stories, and are prosy, and spend their days about mere chance matters, we call gossips but not wholly destitute of self-control, nor again those who are pained at the loss of money or friends."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book III, Section VII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"These things then to which the bias is, we call more contrary, and so total want of self-control (the excess) is more contrary than the defect is to perfected self-mastery."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section VII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"But in all cases we must guard most carefully against what is pleasant, and pleasure itself, because we are not impartial judges of it."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book II, Section IX, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Further: Wish has for its object the End rather, but Moral Choice the means to the End;"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book III, Section II, by Aristotle, 325BC

"The multitude of men seem to be deceived by reason of pleasure, because though it is not really a good it impresses their minds with the notion of goodness, so they choose what is pleasant as good and avoid pain as an evil."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book III, Section III, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Whether then we suppose that the End impresses each man's mind with certain notions not merely by nature, but that there is somewhat also dependent on himself... If then, as is commonly said, the Virtues are voluntary (because we at least co-operate in producing our moral states, and we assume the End to be of a certain kind according as we are ourselves of certain characters), the Vices must be voluntary also, because the cases are exactly similar."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book III, Section III, by Aristotle, 325BC

"But in respect of the peculiar pleasures many men go wrong and in many different ways; for whereas the term "fond of so and so" implies either taking pleasure in wrong objects, or taking pleasure excessively, or as the mass of men do, or in a wrong way, they who are destitute of all self-control exceed in all these ways; that is to say, they take pleasure in some things in which they ought not to do so (because they are properly objects of detestation)..."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book III, Section XI, by Aristotle, 325BC

"The name of this vice (which signifies etymologically unchastened-ness) we apply also to the faults of children, there being a certain resemblance between the cases: to which the name is primarily applied, and to which secondarily or derivatively, is not relevant to the present subject, but it is evident that the later in point of time must get the name from the earlier... And the metaphor seems to be a very good one; for whatever grasps after base things, and is liable to great increase, ought to be chastened; and to this description desire and the child answer most truly, in that children also live under the direction of desire and the grasping after what is pleasant is most prominently seen in these. Unless then the appetite be obedient and subjected to the governing principle it will become very great: for in the fool the grasping after what is pleasant is insatiable and undiscriminating; and every acting out of the desire increases the kindred habit, and if the desires are great and violent in degree they even expel Reason entirely; therefore they ought to be moderate and few, and in no respect to be opposed to Reason. Now when the appetite is in such a state we denominate it obedient and chastened. In short, as the child ought to live with constant regard to the orders of its educator, so should the appetitive principle with regard to those of Reason. So then in the man of Perfected Self-Mastery, the appetitive principle must be accordant with Reason: for what is right is the mark at which both principles aim: that is to say, the man of perfected self-mastery desires what he ought in right manner and at right times, which is exactly what Reason directs. Let this be taken for our account of Perfected Self-Mastery."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book III, Section XII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Shame is felt at voluntary actions only, and a good man will never voluntarily do what is base."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book IV, Section IX, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Again, if the having strong and bad lusts is necessary to the idea of the man of Self-Control, this character cannot be identical with the man of Perfected Self-Mastery, because the having strong desires or bad ones does not enter into the idea of this latter character: and yet the man of Self-Control must have such:"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section II, by Aristotle, 325BC

"All bodily things which produce pleasure are necessary; and I call such those which relate to food and other grosser appetities... But of those who have for their object-matter the bodily enjoyments, which we say are also the object-matter of the man of Perfected Self-Mastery and the man who has lost all Self-Control... but not any of those other characters, because the former have for their object-matter the same pleasures and pains: but though they have the same object-matter, they are not related to it in the same way, but two of them act upon moral choice, two without it."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section IV, by Aristotle, 325BC

"As there are some things naturally pleasant, and of these two kinds; those, namely, which are pleasant generally, and those which are so relatively to particular kinds of animals and men; so there are others which are not naturally pleasant but which come to be so in consequence either of maimings, or custom, or depraved natural tastes: and one may observe moral states similar to those we have been speaking of, having respectively these classes of things for their object-matter... Obviously the having any of these inclinations is something foreign to what is denominated Vice... Brutish and Morbid Imperfection of Self-Control... utter absence of Self-Control, as it is found in Man"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section V, by Aristotle, 325BC

"'that Imperfect Self-Control in respect of Anger is less disgraceful than that in respect of Lusts.' ... Anger follows Reason in a manner, but Lust does not and is therefore more disgraceful: because he that cannot control his anger yields in a manner to Reason, but the other to his Lust and not to Reason at all. ... Again, characters are less unjust in proportion as they involve less insidiousness. Now the Angry man is not insidious, nor is Anger, but quite open: but Lust is: as they say of Venus, 'Cyprus-born Goddess, weaver of deceits' ... Again, no man feels pain in being insolent, but every one who acts through Anger does act with pain; and he who acts insolently does it with pleasure"

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section VI, by Aristotle, 325BC

"We have already said in what sense all Pleasures are good per se and in what sense not all are good: it is the latter class that brutes and children pursue, such as are accompanied by desire and pain, that is the bodily Pleasures (which answer to this description) and the excesses of them: in short, those in respect of which the man utterly destitute of Self-Control is thus utterly destitute. And it is the absence of the pain arising from these Pleasures that the man of Practical Wisdom aims at. It follows that these Pleasures are what the man of Perfected Self-Mastery avoids: for obviously he has Pleasures peculiarly his own."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section XII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"only as one and the same nature or state neither is nor is thought to be the best, so neither do all pursue the same Pleasure, Pleasure nevertheless all do. Nay further, what they pursue is, perhaps, not what they think nor what they would say they pursue, but really one and the same: for in all there is some instinct above themselves."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section XII, by Aristotle, 325BC

"But Pleasure drives out Pain; not only such Pleasure as is directly contrary to Pain but even any Pleasure provided it be strong: and this is how men come to be utterly destitute of Self-Mastery, i.e. low and bad. But those Pleasures which are unconnected with Pains do not admit of excess..."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section XIV, by Aristotle, 325BC

"and not as it is in that of a lover and the object of his affection, these not deriving their pleasure from the same causes, but the former from seeing the latter and the latter from receiving the attentions of the former: and when the bloom of youth fades the Friendship sometimes ceases also, because then the lover derives no pleasure from seeing and the object of his affection ceases to receive the attentions which were paid before: in many cases, however, people so connected continue friends, if being of similar tempers they have come from custom to like one another's disposition."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section XIV, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Between Husband and Wife there is thought to be Friendship by a law of nature: man being by nature disposed to pair, more than to associate in Communities: in proportion as the family is prior in order of time and more absolutely necessary than the Community. And procreation is more common to him with other animals; all the other animals have Communion thus far, but human creatures cohabit not merely for the sake of procreation but also with a view to life in general: because in this connection the works are immediately divided, and some belong to the man, others to the woman: thus they help one the other, putting what is peculiar to each into the common stock... And for these reasons this Friendship is thought to combine the profitable and the pleasurable: it will be also based upon virtue if they are good people; because each has goodness and they may take delight in this quality in each other. Children too are thought to be a tie: accordingly the childless sooner separate, for the children are a good common to both and anything in common is a bond of union."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section XIV, by Aristotle, 325BC

"What it does seem to be is the starting point of a Friendship; just as pleasure, received through the sight, is the commencement of Love: for no one falls in love without being first pleased with the personal appearance of the beloved object, and yet he who takes pleasure in it does not therefore necessarily love, but when he wearies for the object in its absence and desires its presence."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section XIV, by Aristotle, 325BC

"Perhaps then it is well not to endeavour to have very many friends but so many as are enough for intimacy: because, in fact, it would seem not to be possible to be very much a friend to many at the same time: and, for the same reason, not to be in love with many objects at the same time: love being a kind of excessive Friendship which implies but one object: and all strong emotions must be limited in the number towards whom they are felt."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section XIV, by Aristotle, 325BC

"The Lacedæmonian is nearly the only State in which the framer of the Constitution has made any provision, it would seem, respecting the food and manner of living of the people: in most States these points are entirely neglected, and each man lives just as he likes, ruling his wife and children Cyclops-Fashion."

from the Nicomachean Ethics - Book VII, Section XIV, by Aristotle, 325BC

1. non-reductive physicalism (introductory article including some comments on overdetermination)2. Subjectify is a secular organisation